Nascent industry body FinTech NZ grew membership by about 10 per cent on the back of a buoyant annual conference for the sector last week in Auckland.
According to the hardest-working man in FinTech NZ (or general manager), James Brown, the sold-out Finnotec show generated a surge in interest that pushed the recently-formed group’s member numbers close to 100.
FinTech NZ launched this February under the aegis of broader technology industry body NZTech with about 50 foundation members.
Brown told the Finnotec crowd, live at the Cordis (formerly Langham) Hotel in Auckland, last Friday that fintech was the fastest-moving sector of an already upbeat NZ technology scene.
He said the latest industry data – the ‘TIN100’ report released late in October – shows the NZ tech sector broke through $10 billion revenue mark for the first time making it “the third largest contributor towards New Zealand’s GDP”. Fintech experienced the highest growth-rate of all NZ tech sectors over the year, up almost 50 per cent year-on-year, Brown said.
Over 200 delegates attended the second annual Finnotec conference, which looks set to be a regular feature on the NZ fintech calendar. Convened by SavvyKiwi founder, Binu Paul, the event canvassed a wide range of topics spanning regulation, blockchain, IP protection strategies for start-ups, UK expansion opportunities for Kiwi high-flyers and a raft of product showcases.
However, following the somewhat-disruptive election result, the slated appearance by the now ex-Commerce Minister, Jacqui Dean, was canned. Due to post-election ministerial calendar-scrubbing, Dean’s Labour successor, Kris Faafoi, was unable to front-up to fintech.
However, Finnotec conference organisers plan to share findings of an online survey of the financial services and technology industries with government to bolster fintech’s profile in the new administration.
For interested parties, including those who did not attend the conference, the online Finnotec survey is scheduled to remain open until the end of Wednesday.
Please click here to complete the survey, which includes a one-off opportunity to win six bottles of Postage Stamp wine: robot entries are not accepted.